THERE are in excess of 130 entries for the Jersey Swimming Club’s 50th Castle to Harbour swim, which is taking place next week.
JSC president Neil Faudemer said: ‘It’s a fantastic number of entries, there have never been so many - at least that I’m aware of - but the numbers also cause a few logistical headaches.’ Entrants are usually ferried out to Elizabeth Castle aboard the Duchess of Normandy, but this year the club has hired one of the South Coast Cruise boats which will still have to do two journeys to get everyone over.
‘Rules will have to be applied strictly.
We have a 30-minute window between commercial traffic movements and all the swimmers have to make it to the harbour entrance within that time, otherwise we may have to ask them to come out of the water,’ said Faudemer, adding: ‘Condor and Emeraude have stopped for a few minutes on occasions to let the swimmers get through, and their passengers go out on deck to watch!’ ‘We have had meetings with the Harbour Office and they have been very helpful to us and will be providing some of the guard boat cover, as will the Jersey Canoe Club and the Kayak Club.
‘There will have to be a staggered start, with the men going off first and the women five minutes later, and there are prizes in various categories, not just for the first man or woman home,’ Faudemer said.
‘The youngest competitors are 12 years of age, and the most senior are in their late 60s, and there are prizes for Masters, at 40, 50 and 60+ categories, and we’ve got prizes for parent and offspring this year as well.
That has got a lot of parents into the water and they’ve been training like mad!’ And as this is the 50th swim - the first took place in August 1955 - special medals have been been struck.
Last year’s winner was Nathan Jégou who completed the distance in a record time of 19 min 14 sec, but favourite this year is probably Alexis Militis who, if conditions are good, could beat the record.
In the women’s section Katy Speller has been training hard and is very keen to regain the crown she won in 2002, ahead of last year’s winners, twins Katy and Emma Collins.
Article posted on 6th July, 2004 - 12.00am
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